had best

1. 1.

   act in one's own or everybody's best interest

   “You will do well to arrive on time tomorrow!”

   Synonymsdo well

   Broaderact

Questions about had best

What does had best mean?

had best means "act in one's own or everybody's best interest".

What is another word for had best?

Close synonyms include do well. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is had best a common word?

had best is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.